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UNION     THEOLOGICAL     SEMINARY 


The  Seminary:  Its  Spirit  and  Aims 


Addresses 

given  at  the  Annual  Dinner  of  the  Alumni 
held  on  May  13,  1907 

and  a 

Review  of  the  Year  1906-1907 


700  PARK  AVENUE  :     NEW  YORK 


NEW  YORK 

THE  IRVING   PRESS 

1907 


UNION     THEOLOGICAL     SEMINARY 


The  Seminary:  Its  Spirit  and  Aims 


Addresses 

given  at  the  Annual  Dinner  of  the  Alumni 
held  on  May  13,  1907 

and  a 

Review  of  the  Year  1906-1907 


700  PARK  AVENUE  :     NEW  YORK 


OF  THE      ' 

UNIVERSITY   ' 

OF 


NEW  YORK 
THE  IRVING   PRESS 

1907 


CONTENTS 


THE  SEMINARY  AND  THE  MESSAGE  OF  CHRISTIANITY,      .        5 
By  Prof.  THOMAS  C.  HALL. 


THE  SEMINARY  AND  SCHOLARSHIP, 
By  Prof.  FRANCIS  BROWN. 


THE  SEMINARY  AND  THE  CHURCH,  .         .         .         .16 

By  Rev.  HENRY  SLOANE  COFFIN. 


THE  SEMINARY  AND  THE  WORLD,    . 

By  President  CHARLES  CUTHBERT  HALL. 


REVIEW  OF  THE  YEAR  1906-1907,  .         .         .         .         .30 
By  Acting  President  GEORGE  WILLIAM  KNOX. 


162905 


The  Alumni  Club  of  the  Union  Theological  Seminary  in- 
vited four  members  of  the  Faculty  to  make  the  addresses  at 
the  Annual  Dinner  of  the  Alumni  on  Monday  evening,  May  13, 
1907,  and  suggested  as  the  common  topic,  "The  Seminary." 
The  addresses,  as  setting  forth  the  spirit  and  aims  of  the 
Seminary,  are  now  printed  by  request.  The  summary  of 
the  events  of  the  year  1906-1907,  which  was  given  at  the 
luncheon  on  May  14,  is  appended. 


THE  SEMINARY  AND  THE  MESSAGE  OF 
CHRISTIANITY 

THOMAS  C.   HALL 

It  is  a  presumption  on  my  part,  even  by  request,  to  at- 
tempt to  formulate  in  the  name  of  the  great  spiritual  fellow- 
ship of  Union  Theological  Seminary,  the  Christian  message. 
If  that  message  were  an  opinion,  or  set  of  opinions,  I  would 
not  dare  to  do  it.  A  small  uncultured  group  can  unite  on 
opinions,  but  the  more  intelligent  we  grow  the  more  impos- 
sible is  it  to  agree  on  opinions.  It  is  not  opinion  but  purpose 
that  unites  the  faculty  of  Union  Seminary.  It  is  not  opinion 
but  purpose  that  binds  together  the  great  and  increasing 
Alumni  body  whose  zeal  and  enthusiasm  are  our  constant  in- 
spiration. 

The  world  would  be  a  stupid  place  if  we  all  had  one 
opinion.  The  charm  and  inspiration  of  many  a  social  family 
meeting  of  the  Seminary  are  the  vast  variety  of  opinions,  born 
of  honest  conviction  on  the  basis  of  special  study.  We  have 
no  fears  in  talking  out  our  hearts,  for  there  burns  in  our  midst 
the  great  common  purpose,  with  clearer  and  clearer  light. 
This  is  our  enthusiasm,  this  our  bond  of  Union. 

It  was  my  lot,  as  I  returned  last  year  from  Europe,  to 
spend  a  short  three  days — rainy  days  and  cold  they  were — in 
venerable  Rome.  Never  was  the  old  impression  stronger 
upon  me  than  in  those  three  days,  of  how  the  beautiful  older 
medievalism  had  overlaid  the  Christ  with  the  gaudy  garments 
of  mythology.  The  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  was 
simply  lost  amidst  the  Virgin  Mary  images,  the  pictures  of 
the  infant  Jesus  and  the  kneeling,  bejewelled  ecclesiastics.  It 
is  not  a  grateful  task  to  tear  aside  the  veil  so  patiently  but  so 
mistakenly  woven.  It  is  a  dangerous  attitude  of  mind  that  is 

[5] 


6 

bent  upon  the  destruction  of  pagan  dualism  and  misty  medi- 
aeval mythologies;  only  the  recognition  of  the  purpose  in  its 
greater  divinity;  only  the  sense  that  even  the  glory  and 
beauty  of  mediaeval  scholasticism  are  a  snare  if  they  hide  that 
purpose,  can  give  us  either  courage  or  loving  wisdom  enough 
to  attempt  the  undertaking. 

Protestantism  has  never  quite  freed  herself  from  the 
bonds  of  that  mediaeval  scholasticism.  She  continued  to  do 
her  thinking  even  in  the  days  of  her  heroic  struggle  in  Greek 
categories  and  in  the  terms  of  that  scholasticism  which  was 
born  of  imperial  ambitions.  It  was,  therefore,  no  accident 
that  the  new  Protestantism  of  Union  Theological  Seminary 
flung  herself  upon  the  recovery  of  the  sources  of  our  Christian 
inspirations  and  began  to  teach  men  to  think  in  the  cate- 
gories of  the  recovered  Old  Testament,  and  in  the  glorious 
freedom  and  simplicity  of  a  New  Testament  read  without  the 
colored  glasses  of  ecclesiastical  commentary.  May  the  time 
never  come  when  the  Seminary  will  be  false  to  the  free  and 
scholarly  traditions  of  her  splendid  past !  May  we,  who 
breathe  that  freedom  and  enter  into  the  labors  of  those  who 
have  taught  us  where  to  find  this  spring  of  living  water,  never 
be  faithless  or  afraid  as  we  formulate  the  message  born  of 
personal  contact  with  the  life  God  has  so  freely  given  us. 

For  the  message  of  the  Seminary  is  given  not  on  the 
authority  of  a  church  or  a  creed,  or  even  a  book,  however 
sacred,  but  on  the  authority  of  the  living  God,  as  He  has  in 
book  or  creed,  in  joy  and  sorrow  become  our  personal  exper- 
ience. And  all  we  can  hope  to  do  is  to  take  our  pupils  by  the 
hand  and  lead  them  into  the  presence  of  the  God  and  Father 
of  our  Lord  Jesus,  thenceforth  they  are  themselves  in  vital 
contact  with  Him  and  know  Him,  not  because  we  told  them 
but  because  they  themselves  have  seen  and  heard. 

Now  this  purpose  is  no  abstract,  academic  thing,  it  is  a 
concrete  and  ever  present  reality.  We  know  the  purpose  of 
God  because  we  have  seen  Jesus  Christ.  That  great  purpose 
has  laid  hold  of  us  and  will  not  let  us  go.  All  life  is  glorified 
and  given  eternal  meaning  because  we  have  seen  that  incarna- 
tion, unique  and  splendid,  of  God's  loving,  redeeming  purpose 
in  the  face  of  our  elder  brother,  Jesus  Christ.  His  life  is  the 
formulation  of  the  message  of  the  Seminary  to  the  world.  As 


He  was  redeeming  love  so  is  God  redeeming  love,  so  are  we  to 
be  redeeming  lives. 

He  calls  us  to  the  kingdom  of  His  redeeming  purpose.  I 
love  to  link  the  messages  of  Paul  and  John.  Brethren,  now 
are  we  the  Sons  of  God  and  let  us  fill  out  in  our  bodies  that 
which  is  lacking  of  the  sufferings  of  Christ  for  His  body's 
sake,  for  God  is  now  so  loving  the  world  that  He  is  giving,  as 
He  has  given  in  all  ages,  His  beloved  sons  that  that  world 
may  not  perish,  but  through  them  have  everlasting  life.  But 
we  can  only  thus  redeem  when  we  draw  our  life  from  purpose- 
ful union  with  the  only  begotten  son  of  our  Father. 

Again  the  purpose  of  the  World's  Redeemer  was  not  His  own 
soul's  salvation.  The  taunt  of  His  enemies  was  His  noblest 
tribute:  He  saved  others,  Himself  He  could  not  save.  Our 
purpose  is  the  redemption  of  the  world  and  the  revelation  to 
all  the  ages  of  the  Father  whom  we  have  come  to  know  and 
love  in  the  face  of  Christ  Jesus.  We  have  seen  God  and  we 
cannot  rest  until  the  world  also  sees  Him,  until  the  world, 
God's  beautiful  world,  reflects  the  heart  of  God  in  all  the 
splendor  of  His  redeeming  love  in  the  beauty  of  His  holiness. 

Thus  the  message  of  the  Union  Seminary  is  formulated  in 
the  Kingdom  purpose  of  God  as  that  purpose  was  proclaimed 
in  the  life  and  death  of  our  divine  Master.  We  may  have 
many  opinions  about  means  and  methods,  many  shades  of 
thought  and  feeling  in  expressing  the  message,  many  moods 
and  various  levels  of  inspiration,  but  this  is  our  purpose  born 
in  an  unshakable  faith  in  love  and  life  of  the  Eternal  God, 
that  from  sea  to  sea  and  from  pole  to  pole  men  shall  know 
God  because  they  have  seen  Him  in  the  cross  of  Christ  and 
the  resurrection  glory  of  a  divine  social  order. 

If  ever  the  work  of  Union  Seminary  has  seemed  critical 
and  destructive,  it  has  only  been  so  because  the  way  was 
seemingly  blocked  by  human  traditions  and  outworn  formulae. 
Criticism  and  destruction  have  never  been  more  than  incidental. 
The  main  message  of  our  fellowship  is  the  cry  to  men  of  all 
opinions  but  of  our  good  will  to  help  build  with  us  the  King- 
dom of  our  God.  If  men  will  join  with  us  in  interpreting  the 
world  in  the  terms  of  a  spiritual  ethics,  born  of  contact  with 
this  Kingdom  purpose  to  which  we  are  called,  we  will  not 
quarrel  with  them  as  they  allow  themselves  the  luxury  of 


8 

metaphysics  whether  good  or  bad,  an  ontology  tenable  or  un- 
tenable. But  these  things  dare  not  usurp  the  throne  of  God 
and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus,  nor  obscure  the  main  issue — 
the  coming  of  His  Kingdom. 

The  message  of  Union  Theological  Seminary  is  therefore 
the  dream  of  the  Christ,  that  we  may  be  one  in  the  unity 
of  our  purpose  with  God,  as  He  was  one  with  His  Father 
in  the  unity  of  the  loving  purpose  of  redemption.  We 
hope  to  send  out  from  our  walls  scholars  and  preachers,  men 
of  thought  and  men  of  action;  but  scholarship  and  pulpit 
power  are  but  the  means  to  the  end.  The  end  is  the  world's 
redemption,  the  messengers  are  to  be  redemptive  agents;  in 
the  name  of  Christ  redeemers  of  the  world! 

This,  I  take  it,  in  its  splendid  simplicity,  is  the  message 
of  Christianity  as  Union  Theological  Seminary  sees  it,  and 
proclaims  it  in  humble  dependence  upon  the  God  of  all  truth, 
to  a  hungry  and  thirsty  world. 


THE  SEMINARY  AND  SCHOLARSHIP 
FRANCIS  BROWN 

The  Christian  message  is  simple  and  direct.  It  aims  to 
reproduce  the  life  of  Christ  in  men,  nothing  more  complicated 
than  that,  nothing  less  revolutionary  than  that.  The  simple 
Christian  message  is  the  thin  edge  of  the  wedge,  with  power 
of  conviction  and  the  enthusiasm  of  loyalty  and  devoted  pur- 
pose to  drive  it  home. 

But  a  wedge  is  not  all  thin  end.  Drive  a  knife-blade 
through  a  board,  and  you  will  not  split  the  board.  Behind 
your  narrow  end  there  must  be  something  broad  and  massive 
if  your  wedge  is  to  do  its  work. 

Modern  generalship  is  not  to  dash  ahead  waving  a  sword 
and  summoning  men  to  follow.  The  leader  must  command 
the  field,  he  must  plan  out  the  battle.  He  must  know  where 
he  is  going,  and  how  to  get  there,  and  how  to  take  advantage 
of  the  ground.  He  must  mass  his  forces  and  hurl  them  with 
concentrated  energy  upon  the  point  of  attack. 

You  may  have  head  of  water  enough  to  turn  a  great  mill- 
wheel,  but  no  wheel  will  turn  if  the  stream  is  delivered  against 
it  through  a  pin-hole. 

These  figures  are  imperfect — fair  game  for  criticism — but 
they  are  meant  to  convey  the  truth  that  Christianity  has  a 
wide  appeal,  and  must  maintain  it,  if  it  is  to  command  the 
world.  We  must  get  at  all  men,  and  the  whole  of  each  man — 
the  thinking  part  of  him  as  at  every  other  part.  The  Christian 
preacher  must  be  so  equipped  that  he  can  make  the  simple 
Christian  message  a  living  force  in  all  the  spheres  in  which 
men  live  their  varied  life — the  sphere  of  feeling  and  desire,  the 
region  where  men  struggle  for  their  daily  bread  or  for  the 
luxuries  that  have  become  their  necessities,  the  region  where 

[9] 


10 

they  make  their  great  resolves,  the  region  where  they  think 
out  their  systems  and  explain  themselves  to  themselves.  The 
remotest  of  these  spheres  is  practical  at  the  last;  abstract 
workings  of  the  intellect  grip  the  world  in  the  long  run.  The 
philosopher's  wrestlings  of  one  generation  are  the  newspaper 
axioms  of  the  next.  If  Christianity  is  to  last  it  must  make  its 
appeal  to  men  of  mind  and  understand  how  to  shape  and 
direct  its  messages  to  men  in  all  the  phases  of  their  life. 

Hence  the  need  of  scholarship.  The  Seminary — and  this 
Seminary  in  a  marked  degree — really  exists  for  scholarship. 
For  Christianity  scholarship  is  not  the  selfish  satisfaction  of 
the  recluse,  nor  the  superficial  adornment  of  the  idle;  it  is  the 
indispensable  enlargement  of  power.  The  scholar  is  the  man 
who  has  gone  to  school,  he  is  schooled  to  his  work.  In  the 
only  sense  in  which  we  are  now  concerned  with  the  matter,  it 
is  the  trained  man  who  is  the  scholar. 

Only  a  narrow  and  short-sighted  view  belittles  the  impor- 
tance of  the  scholar's  training  for  the  most  practical  of 
callings.  The  raw  recruit  cannot  make  up  for  ignorance  by 
zeal,  even  in  the  ranks.  Do  you  suppose  the  demands  of  a 
captaincy  are  less  exacting?  It  is  for  the  very  reason  that 
the  ministry  is  a  practical  profession,  that  its  service  is  ab- 
sorbing, that  its  issues  are  not  theoretical,  but  vital — it  is  for 
this  very  reason  that  the  scholar's  training  is  essential  to  its 
full  discharge. 

Of  course,  its  scholarship  must  be  living  and  not  dead — 
it  must  be  progressive  and  not  stagnant,  it  must  keep  pace 
with  the  intellectual  life  of  the  world.  Its  ships  must  not  be 
moored  forever  to  an  ancient  wharf,  it  must  be  free  to  sail 
the  seas,  secure,  not  in  the  strength  of  cables  that  hold  it  fast 
to  prevent  its  drifting,  but  in  the  possession  of  chart  and  com- 
pass and  the  guidance  of  the  stars. 

As  a  training-school  for  the  ministry  the  Seminary  must 
supply  this  scholarship.  It  is  the  serious  purpose  of  those 
who  have  the  affairs  of  this  Seminary  in  their  hands  to  suffer 
nothing  to  interfere  with  the  maintenance  of  scholarship  as 
a  means  to  the  great  end  of  making  effective  the  Christian 
message — of  reproducing  the  life  of  Christ  in  men. 

For  this  purpose  its  teachers  must  be  trained  men,  men  to 
whom  scholarship  seems  worth  while — men  always  in  training, 


11 

keeping  in  practice,  producing  scholarly  results,  adding  to  the 
sum  of  knowledge — men  who  strive  for  mastery  in  their  field — 
lest  they  stagnate  and  cease  to  have  any  living  scholarship  to 
impart. 

In  no  department  of  life  is  the  road  to  mastery  an  easy 
road.  One  of  the  greatest  services  a  teacher  can  render  to 
his  students  is  to  show  them  how  it  runs.  For  the  scholar  it 
runs  the  way  of  patience  and  self-abnegation  and  infinite 
painstaking,  and  humility;  its  sign-posts  are  love  of  truth, 
hatred  of  shams,  activity  of  mind,  reserve  in  judgment;  it 
leads  by  observation  and  experience,  by  reflection  and  sym- 
pathy to  ripe  decision  and  trained  facility.  It  is  a  steep  path 
up  which  one  must  climb,  one  cannot  hurry.  It  demands 
abundant  time,  but  it  ends  in  power.  I  make  no  apology  for 
applying  these  remarks  to  the  familiar  categories  of  the- 
ology— defective  enough  as  sharp  divisions,  but  adequate  for 
our  illustrations: 

FIRST. — The  Christian  message  is  a  practical  one — to 
reproduce  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ.  Practical  Theology  is  con- 
cerned with  training  at  the  very  point  of  application,  with  the 
sharpening  of  the  wedge,  with  the  mallet-strokes  that  send  it 
home.  Practical  Theology  is  experimental  wisdom  passed  on; 
it  culminates  in  preaching — an  art  requiring  infinite  practice. 
We  hope  to  emphasize  this  more  and  more.  We  earnestly 
desire  to  awaken  in  the  men  who  come  to  us  the  loftiest 
preacher's  ideal,  and  to  help  them  to  approach  it  by  the 
utmost  assiduity  of  study,  and  the  untiring  repetitions  of 
patient  exercise,  that  they  may  become  preachers  indeed  to 
whom  the  world  will  listen,  because  they  know  what  their 
message  is  and  how  they  are  to  present  it  so  as  to  make  it 
seem  the  thing  it  is  in  fact — the  most  intimate  and  essential 
of  all  human  concerns. 

SECOND. — Take  History.  We  propose  to  lay  on  Historical 
Theology  not  less  emphasis — in  view  of  urgent  practical  needs 
— but  more,  much  more.  In  a  large  view  history  conies  to  its 
own  in  this,  that  no  subject  in  all  the  range  of  religious 
knowledge  can  now  be  treated  apart  from  its  history — the  his- 
torical method  is  everywhere  in  control.  And  the  lessons  of 
history  itself  are  many,  and  its  uses  are  great.  The  promi- 


12 

nence  given  to  it  would  be  justified  abundantly  by  two:  As  the 
record  of  past  events  in  their  relations  it  affords  the  setting  in 
which,  and  in  which  alone,  we  can  understand  in  some  measure 
God's  dealings  with  our  own  age;  and  as  the  record  of  human 
thought  about  divine  things,  it  shows  God's  truth  developing 
in  human  experience,  and  Jesus  Christ  coming  by  degrees  to 
his  own.  In  both  aspects  it  has  its  permanent  and  indispen- 
sable service  in  shaping  the  Christian  message,  and  helping  to 
reproduce  the  life  of  Christ. 

THIRD. — Take  Systematic  Theology.  We  enlarge  this  now 
to  include  whatever  aspects  of  philosophy  are  legitimate  in 
laying  the  foundation  of  faith,  and  whatever  laws  of  moral 
life  are  germane  to  the  Christian  character.  At  the  heart  of 
it  lies  the  substance  of  our  message  as  Christian  ministers.  It 
is  here  that  we  find  room  and  time  for  the  best  approach  to 
sufficient  statements  of  Christian  truth.  The  enlargement  of 
this  rubric  to  take  in  ethical  questions  obliges  us  to  face  here 
all  the  social  problems  with  which  the  Christian  message  is 
involved,  and  to  see  to  it  that,  as  we  preach  it,  it  is  in  fact  a 
message  for  men  in  their  manifold  relations  with  each  other, 
ending  in  a  redeemed  society  controlled  by  love,  and  active  in 
love.  Here  we  express  the  eternal  truth,  in  terms  suitable  for 
fresh  conditions.  This  is  the  workshop  where  the  old  verities 
are  tested,  and  wrought  into  new  forms,  effective  for  a  new 
age.  Hither  are  brought  the  products  of  many  mines  of 
thought,  here  burn  the  intense  fires  of  religious  experience, 
here  are  shaped  the  moulds  of  exact  words,  into  which  the 
molten  thought  may  be  poured,  to  meet  the  needs  of  a  present 
life,  lived  in  the  midst  of  unseen  realities,  until  these  moulds 
in  their  turn  shall  be  broken  up,  and  the  next  age  be  served 
by  other  moulds  shaping  the  same  substance  of  the  Christian 
message  afresh  for  the  men  of  its  generation. 

FOURTH. — I  come  last  to  what  I  think  most  fundamental — 
that  department  which  has  to  do  directly  with  the  Bible,  and 
which  in  the  old  nomenclature  we  call  Exegetical  Theology. 
You  will  understand  why  I  name  it  last,  inverting  the  more 
familiar  order.  It  is  of  primary  importance  and  may  well  be 
offered  as  a  climax.  The  Bible  is  essential,  and  must  always 
remain  essential.  It  is  of  unique  consequence.  Nothing  can 


13 

ever  displace  it — for  this  reason,  if  there  were  no  other: 
because  the  revelation  of  God  through  prophets  and  apostles, 
and  the  revelation  of  God  in  Jesus  Christ,  can  never  again 
come  to  mankind  for  the  first  time  It  is  a  book  of  fundamental 
truth,  and  it  is  written  by  men  in  whose  experience  funda- 
mental truth  was  new-born.  This  originality,  this  primary 
quality,  \ti\3>  firstness  about  the  Bible  makes  it  unique,  abides 
in  it  as  life,  and  ensures  its  perpetual  power.  Unless  Chris- 
tianity itself  were  to  pass  away,  nothing  can,  for  long,  take 
the  place  of  the  Bible.  And  Christianity  itself  will  not  pass 
away.  The  Bible  verifies  itself  over  again  in  each  Christian 
heart,  but  the  Bible  can  never  be  repeated,  Christianity  will 
always  go  back  to  it  as  its  charter.  The  simple  Christian  will 
always  feed  his  soul  upon  it  and  the  leaders  of  Christianity 
must  always  be  trained  in  it.  The  most  thorough  knowledge 
of  it  will  not,  in  the  long  run,  be  thought  too  good — the  most 
painstaking  care  will  not  be  held  too  great.  The  languages 
in  which  it  was  first  written  belong  to  its  originality.  They 
are  not  necessary  to  an  acceptance  of  its  central  message,  but 
they  are  necessary  to  a  possession  of  its  widest  power.  It 
may  seem  to  some  advocates  of  them  that  Bible  study  has  just 
now  fallen  on  lean  years,  in  this  regard.  You  know  what  we 
have  done  in  this  Seminary,  how  we  now  give  one  diploma,  on 
occasion,  without  the  knowledge  of  Hebrew  or  Greek  on  the 
part  of  its  recipient.  We  recognize  the  providential  limita- 
tions of  some  students.  We  are  affected,  as  we  cannot  help 
being,  by  the  conditions  of  education  in  the  colleges  from 
which  our  men  come.  .  But  we  are  practically  putting  the 
B.D.  degree  in  the  place  of  our  old  diploma,  and  requiring 
these  languages  for  that  degree,  and  we  are  urging  all  students 
to  take  them.  Disregard  of  them  is  an  incident  that  cannot 
become  a  permanent  rule  in  the  profound  and  fundamental 
seriousness  of  the  study  of  our  primary  religious  documents. 
My  own  feelings  and  convictions  are  deeply  enlisted  here, 
but  I  can  speak  with  entire  calmness  for  I  have  no  doubt  as  to 
the  long  future.  There  will  always  be  degrees  and  varieties 
of  knowledge.  I  speak  with  no  depreciation  of  those  whom 
God  uses  to  do  any  part  of  his  great  work.  I  honor  them 
all  and  rejoice  in  what  they  do.  But  ignorance  of  the  primary 
sources  appears  to  me  not  emancipation,  but  a  handicap.  The 


14 

Christian  Church,  in  the  end,  will  not  consent  that  its  leaders 
and  teachers  shall  be  without  the  best  knowledge  that  is  to  be 
had  of  the  books  with  which  its  beginnings  are  bound  up,  and 
which  continue  to  be  a  living  foundation  of  its  truth,  a  means 
to  its  edification,  a  treasury  of  its  power. 

Only  two  remarks  more.  While  the  Seminary  emphasizes 
scholarship,  it  does  not  expect  all  its  students,  nor  most  of 
them,  to  become  specialists  in  learning.  But  it  does  desire  to 
stimulate  in  them  love  of  scholarship  for  the  sake  of  making 
the  Christian  message  more  effective.  It  does  wish  to  encour- 
age those  who  can  to  seek  advanced  training  for  their  work. 
It  does  hope  that  some  will  become  more  thorough  scholars, 
and  that  each  will  become  more  of  a  scholar,  because  it  is 
assured  that  knowledge  and  facility  in  using  it,  is  one  great 
reinforcement  in  the  campaign  whose  object  is  to  enter  the 
lives  of  all  men  with  the  uplifting  power  of  Christ.  The  time 
of  training  is  not  to  be  abridged,  but  rather  extended.  More 
and  more  men  are  taking  graduate  courses — making  their 
Seminary  years  four,  or  even  five,  instead  of  only  three.  It  is 
the  voluntary  response  of  students  who  are  measuring  their 
task  to  the  demands  which  that  task  makes  on  those  who  will 
meet  it  worthily. 

I  hardly  think — this  is  the  last  point — I  hardly  think  there 
is  anyone  here  disposed  to  set  scholarship  over  against  piety, 
as  its  antagonist,  or  a  negligible  alternative.  And  yet  this 
opposition  is  still  sometimes  proposed,  and  in  the  interest 
of  piety  ignorant  devotion  is  extolled  over  against  patient 
learning. 

Of  course,  unless  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ  is  in  some 
measure  reproduced  in  the  minister  himself,  he  is  useless. 
But  is  there  any  opposition  between  this  and  the  most  thorough 
schooling?  Gentlemen,  do  we  grasp  our  problem?  Do  we 
know  what  forces  we  have  to  overcome?  Do  we  understand 
that  the  practical  problem  of  Christianity  is  to  lay  hold,  not 
only  of  the  simple  and  ignorant  and  yielding,  but  also  of  the 
strong  and  intelligent  and  hard-headed?  We  have  got  to  cap- 
ture the  citadel  of  superstition  and  prejudice  behind  whose 
walls  ancient  systems  live  on  in  many  lands.  We  have  got  to 
get  at  the  men  of  attainment  and  trained  intellect  at  home, 
the  men  of  literary  taste  and  capacity,  the  men  of  artistic  re- 


UNIVERSITY 

OF 


15 

finement — all  those  influential  sets  of  people  who  have  drawn 
away  from  the  churches  and  have  set  up,  avowedly  or  not, 
little  make-believe  religions  of  their  own.  It  is  not  our 
scholarship  that  will  implant  in  them  the  spirit  of  Jesus,  but 
our  best  scholarship  may  be  needed  to  teach  us  the  avenue 
into  their  lives,  that  one  simple  message  may  find  its  way. 
Do  you  think  Christianity  is  to  abdicate,  when  it  is  confronted 
with  intellectual  strength?  Are  human  powers  to  be  discarded 
and  condemned?  Do  you  imagine  that  there  is  no  room  for 
intellect  in  Christ's  service,  because  he  had  the  devoted  pur- 
pose of  laying  down  his  life  to  serve  men?  Do  you  think  that 
because  it  is  Godlike  to  be  good,  it  is  therefore  Godlike  to  be 
stupid?  If  that  notion  were  widely  prevalent,  should  we  need 
to  look  far  for  the  reason  why  Christianity  is  so  feeble  in  its 
appeal  to  men? 

In  fact,  the  larger  Christian  scholarship  is  a  stimulus  to 
spiritual  power,  because  it  is  the  demand  for  it.  We  must 
have  the  trained  life,  and  the  divine  energy  in  greater  abun- 
dance, to  take  command  of  it.  We  must  be  bigger  men, 
every  way — make  the  most  of  ourselves,  that  God  may  make 
more  out  of  us — surrender  ourselves  to  the  enthusiasm  of 
love  and  service,  and  count  no  toil  too  great  that  may  render 
us  even  a  little  more  serviceable — that  all  we  are,  and  all  we 
can  become  may  find  its  use  in  advancing  His  eternal  king- 
dom. 

This,  brethren,  is  the  scholarly  ideal  of  this  Seminary. 
This  is  the  work  that,  in  all  loyalty  and  devotion  and  courage 
and  humility,  it  desires  to  do.  Some  of  us  love  learning,  but 
we  issue  no  summons  to  learning  simply  because  learning  is 
fine.  We  desire  to  learn,  and  we  invite  others  to  learn  with 
us,  that  God  may  find  larger  use  for  us  in  His  great  plan  of 
reproducing  the  life  of  Jesus  in  men.  In  this  enterprise  we 
ask  your  constant  sympathy,  your  active  support,  your  fellow- 
ship and  your  prayers.  This  is  our  specific  share  in  the 
common  service.  We  feel  our  brotherhood  with  you  as  we 
engage  in  it.  As  fellow-servants  we  invoke  upon  you  and 
upon  ourselves  the  continual  blessing  of  Almighty  God — the 
unfailing  presence  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Saviour  of  the  world! 


THE  SEMINARY  AND  THE  CHURCH 
HENRY  SLOANE  COFFIN 

No  one  can  speak  to  this  toast  to-day  without  beginning 
on  the  note  of  congratulation.  "For  lo,  the  winter  is  past; 
the  rain  is  over  and  gone,  the  flowers  appear  on  the  earth,  the 
time  of  the  singing  of  birds  is  come,"  and  the  Church  is  saying 
to  Union  Theological  Seminary:  "Rise  up,  my  love,  my  fair 
one,  and  come  away."  We  are  giving  thanks — thanks  that 
our  students  are  greatly  sought  after,  and  that  we  should  have 
no  difficulty  in  placing  twice  the  number  in  our  present  gradu- 
ating class,  were  they  men  of  the  same  calibre;  thanks  that 
leaders  in  the  ministry  and  membership  of  the  churches  are 
looking  to  this  Seminary  for  guidance  and  inspiration  as  they 
did  not  a  decade  ago;  thanks  that  men  of  goodwill  outside  the 
organized  churches  come  to  this  institution  as  to  no  other  for 
religious  stimulus,  as  was  well-evidenced  by  the  gathering  in 
Adams  Chapel  last  Lincoln's  Birthday,  when  Social  Settlement 
workers  of  all  shades  of  belief,  or  of  no  belief  at  all,  listened 
intently  all  morning  and  all  afternoon  to  seven  professors  of 
the  Seminary  talking  on  religion  and  its  relation  to  the  social 
movements  of  the  day.  Thanks  that  the  choicest  candidates 
for  the  ministry  of  many  churches  come  here  for  their  educa- 
tion, as  a  university  professor,  himself  a  High  Church  Episco- 
palian, recently  remarked:  "There  is  no  comparison  between 
the  quality  of  men  in  your  student  body  and  those  in  any  other 
seminary  I  know  of,  and  I  think  I  know  something  of  all  of 
them  this  side  the  Mississippi."  Thanks  that  through  the 
Extension  Courses  for  Lay  Workers  an  almost  unlimited  field 
of  usefulness  is  opening  up  to  the  Seminary,  in  this  city  and 
its  neighboring  towns,  in  the  training  of  earnest  Bible  School 
teachers  in  the  Bible  and  in  methods  of  religious  education. 

[16] 


UNt\    . 

QRtflbX 


17 


This  summer,  for  example,  the  workers  in  the  Vacation  Bible 
Schools  conducted  by  the  Federation  of  Churches,  will  be 
taught  under  this  department  of  Union  Seminary.  Thanks 
that  the  churches  officially  are  recognizing  the  Seminary  on 
its  new,  frankly  undenominational,  though  as  frankly  evan- 
gelical, basis,  as  is  most  clearly  shown  in  the  entente  cordiale 
between  it  and  the  body  in  which  some  of  its  severest  battles 
have  been  fought  —  the  regenerated  Presbytery  of  New  York. 
Our  students  are  received  and  examined  on  precisely  the  same 
terms  as  those  from  any  strictly  denominational  institution. 
Thanks  that  we  are  giving  the  Church,  year  by  year,  as  in  the 
present  graduating  class,  a  body  of  ministers  and  missionaries 
and  scholars  of  whom  Faculty  and  Alumni  may  well  be  proud. 
Thanks  that  the  record  of  past  devotion  to  truth,  the  generous 
support  of  the  institution  by  its  friends,  the  wisdom  of  its 
Directors,  the  consecration  and  ability  of  its  Faculty,  and  the 
quality  of  work  done  by  its  Alumni  have  given  Union  Theo- 
logical Seminary  a  primacy  among  similar  schools  of  religious 
learning  in  American  Protestant  Christendom.  And,  above  all, 
thanks  that  the  ideals  and  ideas  for  which  this  Seminary  has 
stood  are  gaining  ground  throughout  the  churches  all  over  the 
country  with  a  rapidity  that  is  simply  startling.  The  very 
stars  in  their  courses  in  the  world  of  thought  are  fighting  for 
us,  because  in  the  darkness  of  the  past  our  magi  have  fol- 
lowed them. 

What  then  has  the  Church  —  and  by  the  Church  we  mean 
the  churches  —  a  right  to  ask  of  the  Seminary?  Let  me  name 
only  three  things  to-night. 

FIRST.  —  The  frank  recognition  that  the  Seminary  is  the 
servant  of  the  Church,  and  that  its  business  is  to  send  out 
men  fitted  to  meet  the  Church's  wants  as  they  exist  to-day. 
This  institution  cannot  become  a  school  of  theological  research, 
where  religious  knowledge  is  sought  out  of  all  relation  to  the 
particular  posts  its  graduates  are  to  fill.  It  must  continue  as 
it  has  always  been,  a  training  place  primarily  for  preachers, 
pastors,  missionaries  and  teachers.  The  test  of  a  preacher  is 
simply  —  can  he  proclaim  the  good  news  of  God  convincingly? 
of  a  pastor  —  can  he  shepherd  his  congregation?  In  addition 
to  its  thorough  education  along  scholarly  lines  of  which 
Dr.  Brown  has  just  spoken  —  and  who  more  fitly  than  he, 


18 

our  hope  and  joy  and  crown  of  glorying  among  English- 
speaking  Old  Testament  scholars — it  is  the  duty  of  the 
Seminary  to  take  the  student  and  ask  him  plainly,  what  is  the 
message  which  with  the  aid  of  his  scholarship — Hebrew  and 
Greek,  Biblical  exegesis  and  theology,  Church  history  and 
dogmatics  and  all  the  rest — he  intends  to  give,  and  to  show 
him  how  to  give  it  effectively  to  Smith,  Jones  and  Robinson, 
and  to  Mrs.  Smith  and  Lizzie  Jones  and  Willie  Robinson. 
The  churches  demand  that  we  give  them  men  who  know  what 
to  do  in  a  pulpit,  a  Bible  School,  beside  a  sick-bed,  when  they 
meet  people  in  the  ordinary  round  of  congregational  visiting, 
when  they  confront  the  problems  of  a  parish  or  the  perplex- 
ities of  a  mission  field.  Practical  efficiency  is  the  test  they 
will  apply.  And  if  you  gentlemen  will  glance  at  this  year's 
catalogue  you  will  see  to  what  an  extent,  under  the  leadership 
of  President  Hall  and  Professor  Hugh  Black,  and  during  the 
past  twelve  months  with  the  valuable  assistance  of  Professor 
Hoyt,  of  Auburn,  the  Department  of  Practical  Theology  has 
been  enlarged.  In  so  far  as  an  institution  can  breed  preach- 
ers we  are  seeking  to  do  it,  and  to  make  them  preachers  of 
the  right  breed. 

SECOND. — The  Church  has  a  right  to  ask  that  the  Sem- 
inary turn  out  what,  for  lack  of  a  better  name,  we  may  call 
"organizable"  or  "organization"  men.  In  an  institution 
which  breathes  the  free  atmosphere  of  this  Seminary  it  is  all 
too  easy  for  the  student  to  get  into  a  critical  attitude  towards 
the  Church.  In  a  sense  this  is  both  inevitable  and  highly 
desirable.  Ministers  are  to  be  leaders,  and  only  the  leader 
who  is  alive  to  the  defects  of  the  body  that  follows  him — the 
limitations  of  its  theology,  the  crudities  of  its  worship,  the 
inadequacy  of  its  methods,  the  imperfections  of  its  life — can 
guide  it  into  larger  usefulness.  But  there  is  a  grave  peril  in 
this  critical  attitude.  A  man  may  forget  that  the  Church  is 
his  spiritual  mother,  to  whom  under  God  he  owes  all  the  relig- 
ious vitality  he  has,  and  that  the  Church  as  it  exists  to-day, 
with  all  its  faults,  is  doing  the  work  of  the  Kingdom  as  no 
other  body.  Nothing  is  cheaper  or  more  undignified  than  to 
indulge  in  sarcastic  flings  at  the  Church.  Sympathy  and  not 
sarcasm  is  the  only  tolerable  tone.  A  liberal  Seminary  may 
unconsciously  give  its  students  a  certain  superior,  patronising 


19 

air  towards  the  Church  which  is  insufferable.  They  may  come 
out  with  a  tendency  to  emphasize  disagreements,  to  belittle 
their  less  enlightened  but  probably  equally  useful  and  earnest 
brethren  in  the  ministry,  to  fail  of  respect  for  the  prejudices 
of  fellow-believers,  and  so  to  alienate  their  confidence  and  to 
lose  their  co-operation,  to  air  absurdly  unimportant  heresies 
like  the  denial  of  the  historicity  of  the  Virgin  Birth  of  our 
Lord,  to  make  light  of  the  necessary  ecclesiastical  machinery 
as  useless  red  tape.  There  is  no  small  danger  that  a  liberal 
theologian  will  exalt  the  particular  tenets  of  his  liberalism 
to  the  same  undue  importance  to  which  the  old  orthodoxy 
exalted  its  articles  of  belief.  The  new  intellectualism  may  be 
no  less  dogmatic  and  all  too  likely  far  less  comprehensive 
than  the  old.  If  the  Church  tolerates  a  wide  diversity  of 
opinion  among  its  ministers — and,  thank  God,  most  of  us  find 
all  the  elbow-room  we  need  to-day — it  has  a  right  to  insist 
that  these  ministers  shall  keep  to  the  fore  their  community  of 
purpose  rather  than  their  divergencies  of  intellectual  state- 
ment, and  work  together  harmoniously  in  the  same  organiza- 
tion. A  Seminary  that  sends  out  free-lances  and  not  regulars 
who  will  take  their  places  in  the  ranks  with  their  brethren,  is 
of  small  service  to  the  churches,  or  to  the  Kingdom  of  God, 
which  to-day  must  largely  be  brought  in  by  organized  forces. 
THIRD. — The  Church  has  a  right  to  ask  that  a  Union 
Seminary  should  make  its  students  denominationally  efficient. 
We  rejoice  that  this  Seminary  is  a  most  potent  factor  for 
Church  unity.  Students  educated  in  the  same  class-rooms, 
trained  to  think  that  denominational  differences  rest  on 
invalid  interpretations  of  the  New  Testament,  and,  above  all, 
permeated  with  supreme  loyalty  to  the  Christian  purpose — of 
which  Dr.  Hall  has  so  eloquently  spoken — a  purpose  which 
transcends  and  renders  insignificant  any  sectarian  interest, 
cannot  go  out  to  enter  into  the  miserable  rivalries  which 
disgrace  our  Protestant  Christianity.  But  for  good  or  ill  the 
Church  of  Christ  is  denominationally  organized  and  is  likely 
to  remain  so  during  our  lifetime.  And  as  long  as  this  is  the 
case  our  graduates  will  be  tested  by  their  ability  to  work  the 
machinery  of  the  particular  sect  in  which  they  serve  as  Pres- 
byterians or  Episcopalians,  Congregationalists  or  Baptists — 
and  here  again,  we  ask  you  to  look  at  the  catalogue  and  see 


the  courses  in  the  various  sectarian  polities  and  institutions 
and  theologies  for  which  the  curriculum  of  the  Seminary 
makes  provision — and  not  merely  by  their  ability  to  work  the 
denominational  machinery,  but  by  the  spirit  they  show  in 
bringing  their  individual  churches  into  line  with  the  denomina- 
tion's work,  in  their  readiness  to  serve  on  its  boards  and 
committees  and  be  conscientious  ecclesiastics.  If  Union 
Seminary  does  not  make  a  Presbyterian  a  more  efficient  and 
loyal  Presbyterian,  and  a  Methodist  a  more  devoted  and  com- 
petent Methodist,  it  can  not  hope  to  command  the  confidence 
and  sympathy  of  the  Presbyterian  and  Methodist  churches. 
The  churches  ask  that  we  turn  out  practically  effective,  organ- 
izable,  denominational  men. 

And  what  does  the  Seminary  ask  of  the  Church  ?  Very 
little  which  it  is  not  already  receiving.  One  could  wish  that 
the  membership  of  the  churches  felt  the  same  interest  in  theo- 
logical scholars  in  this  country  as  is  shown  in  Presbyterian 
Scotland.  There  the  members  of  some  small  village  or  rural 
congregation  have  a  personal  pride  in  a  Rainy,  a  Davidson,  a 
Bruce,  a  Dods,  who  train  the  students  at  the  Divinity  Hall. 
Why  should  not  our  people  have  equal  pride  in  our  scholars, 
for  instance,  in  such  a  titanic,  herculean  accomplishment  of 
learning  as  the  Hebrew  Dictionary?  It  is  ours  as  pastors  to 
stir  up  such  pride. 

It  is  doubtless  impossible  as  yet  to  expect  that  churches 
officially  will  give  financial  support  to  an  institution  which 
stands  on  our  frankly  unsectarian  or  pan-sectarian  platform. 
Such  support  in  any  case  would  amount  to  little.  But  it  is  not 
unreasonable  to  ask  that  particular  congregations,  who  owe 
their  efficiency  under  God's  blessing  largely  to  pastors  educated 
here,  should  do  something  to  evidence  their  gratitude — a 
yearly  contribution  towards  the  library  or  scholarship  funds 
for  instance — and  it  is  ours,  fellow  alumni,  to  make  the  sugges- 
tion. 

And  further,  the  Seminary  has  a  right  to  ask  of  us,  its 
graduates  in  the  ministry  of  the  churches,  an  even  more  out- 
spoken allegiance  than  some  in  times  of  strain  and  stress  have 
been  willing  to  give.  There  have  been  those  who  were  in  the 
habit  of  stating  their  position — "I  am  a  Union  Seminary  man, 
but"  and  then  to  mention  that  they  dissented  from  the 


21 

vagaries  of  the  professors  of  this  institution.  Has  not  the 
day  come  to  bury  these  "buts?"  "I  am  a  Union  Seminary 
man,  AND!"  Let  me  speak  for  the  youngsters  here  this  even- 
ing. You  older  men  are  proud  of  your  training  under  a 
William  Adams  and  a  Henry  B.  Smith,  a  Hitchcock,  a  Shedd, 
a  Schaff.  We  younger  men  are  not  one  whit  less  grateful  to 
God  for  the  men  under  whom  we  have  received  our  training, 
the  men  who  sit  on  this  side  of  the  table  to-night,  the  Halls, 
the  Browns,  a  McGiffert,  a  Knox,  a  Fagnani,  a  Frame.  If  the 
Church  is  getting  anything  from  us,  the  credit  belongs  far 
more  than  we  can  appreciate  to  them.  They  are  the  fans  et 
origo  of  the  methods  we  follow  in  our  theological  thinking,  our 
Bible  exposition,  our  pastoral  work,  above  all,  of  the  spirit, 
the  ideals,  that  animate  us  in  our  calling.  And  by  our 
enthusiasm  for  them  and  the  Seminary  they  man,  it  is  ours  to 
interpret  their  and  its  worth  to  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ, 
which  in  this  land  to-day  has  few  more  precious  possessions 
than  this  Seminary  and  these  scholarly  men  of  God. 


THE    SEMINARY   AND   THE    WORLD 
CHARLES  CUTHBERT  HALL 

I  am  sure  that  we  have  all  been  impressed  with  the  pro- 
gressive development  of  the  theme  of  the  evening  in  the 
several  speeches  that  have  been  delivered.  That  portion  of 
the  theme  which  falls  to  me  is  The  Seminary  and  the  World.  I 
take  the  word  "world"  in  its  largest  sense,  in  that  cosmic 
sense  that  begins  to  stand  forth  on  the  field  of  a  man's  con- 
sciousness when  he  has  made,  for  the  second  time,  the  circuit 
of  the  entire  globe.  Taking  my  subject  in  this  large  sense,  it 
seems  to  present  two  aspects  which  I  shall  try  to  set  before 
you:  namely,  the  duty  of  the  Seminary  to  its  own  students, 
and  the  duty  of  the  Seminary  to  exert  a  direct  influence  upon 
the  world. 

When  one  considers  the  nature  and  needs  of  the  modern 
world,  it  is  obvious  that  an  institution,  which  professes  to 
train  men  for  service  in  the  modern  world,  owes  specific  duties 
to  those  men.  I  can  best  approach  this  part  of  my  subject  by 
suggesting  a  contrast.  In  one  of  his  strongest  books,  which 
is  known  to  us  by  the  name  "Hypatia,"  Charles  Kingsley  in- 
troduces a  picture  which  must  still  be  fresh  in  the  memory  of 
all  of  you  who  have  read  the  book.  Far  up  the  Nile  is  a  com- 
munity of  holy  Christian  men  who  were  once  active  forces  in 
the  world  and  have  now  withdrawn  into  solitude,  devoting 
themselves  to  pious  reflection.  In  their  midst  stands  the 
beautiful  youth  Philammon.  From  infancy  he  has  lived  in 
this  solitude,  but  now  the  awakening  powers  of  youth  suggest 
to  his  imagination  a  world  of  which  he  knows  nothing,  yet 
which  he  longs  to  know.  He  pleads  with  his  venerable  teachers 
for  permission  to  go  forth  into  this  world.  They  rebuke 
him,  they  threaten  him.  At  length  his  importunity  prevails, 

[22] 


23 

and  with  tears  they  send  him  forth  in  his  frail  canoe.  Down 
the  Nile  he  passes,  trembling  with  the  excitement  of  unwonted 
liberty.  At  length  he  reaches  Alexandria,  which  expands  be- 
fore him  its  terrifying  iniquities  and  dazzling  splendors.  In  their 
midst  the  youth  stands  abashed,  bewildered,  overwhelmed. 
This  is  an  illustration  of  the  opposite  of  all  of  that  for  which  I 
contend  to-night.  It  is  an  illustration  of  the  attempt  of  a 
school  of  religious  teachers  to  separate  its  young  disciples 
from  the  world,  and  to  make  them  lead  the  life  of  the  recluse. 
One  cannot  speak  too  strongly  against  the  fallacy  and  injustice 
of  this.  Well  for  the  Seminary  that  stands  physically  and 
locally  in  close  contact  with  the  throbbing  world,  feeling  the 
vibration  of  its  tremendous  traffic,  and  looking  forth  upon  the 
steamships  setting  out  upon  their  voyages  and  the  steamships 
coming  from  afar.  The  Seminary  of  to-day  must  be  thoroughly 
human  before  it  is  academic.  Many  of  you  have  read  Dean 
Hodges'  excellent  article  in  the  April  Atlantic  on  "Theology 
and  Human  Nature."  The  spirit  of  that  article  illustrates  my 
remark  that  the  Seminary  of  to-day  must  be  thoroughly  human 
before  it  is  academic. 

Again  the  Seminary  of  to-day  owes  to  its  students  to 
give  them  what  I  have  sometimes  called  the  cosmic  point  of 
view.  "  Lift  up  your  eyes  and  look. "  To  this  end  its  directors 
and  its  teachers  must  be  in  a  large  and  true  sense  men  of  the 
world,  men  who  have  breathed  the  air  and  have  grasped  the 
facts  of  the  modern  world,  and  who  are  thereby  lifted  above 
merely  sectarian  aims  or  merely  pedantic  aims.  They  must  be 
men  with  love  in  their  hearts  and  light  on  their  brows,  with  a 
true  perspective:  capable  of  seeing  the  large  lines  in  the  back- 
ground of  the  great  world-picture,  as  well  as  the  small  detail 
close  at  hand.  Union  Seminary  has  such  directors  and  such 
teachers,  and  they  are  communicating  their  spirit  to  the 
students. 

Let  me  turn  now  to  the  other  aspect  of  my  subject,  the 
duty  of  the  Seminary  to  exert  a  direct  influence  upon  the 
world.  The  Seminary  that  has  most  grandly  conceived  its 
place  and  purpose  in  the  circle  of  modern  institutions,  cannot 
satisfy  itself  with  efforts  centered  within  its  own  walls  upon  the 
small  circle  of  disciples  gathered  there.  It  will  feel  its  imme- 
diate duty  toward  the  broad  world.  It  will  set  in  motion 


24 

influences  that  shall  go  far  beyond  its  own  walls  and  touch 
communities  that  have  no  organic  connection  with  the  Semi- 
nary and  never  can  have. 

I  need  not  dwell  upon  the  local  side  of  this  subject.  Let 
me  point  only  to  the  Union  Settlement  as  an  evidence  of  the 
desire  of  our  Seminary  to  serve  the  world  that  lies  close 
outside  its  walls.  I  would  dwell  rather  upon  the  duty  of  the 
Seminary  to  the  wider  world;  not  the  world  of  the  United 
States,  or  the  world  of  Europe  only,  but  the  modern  East,  the 
world  of  India,  of  China,  of  Japan.  How  tremendous  that 
world  is  in  its  modern  aspects,  no  one  can  realize  so  well  as 
those  who  have  plunged  into  the  life  of  these  remote  nations. 
It  is  not  my  purpose  to  take  up  your  time  with  an  account  of 
my  own  recent  experiences  in  India  and  the  Far  East.  I  shall 
confine  myself  to  the  statement  of  certain  impressions  which 
registered  themselves  upon  my  mind  during  my  recent  term  of 
residence  in  the  East. 

First  I  was  struck  with  the  impetuous  energy  of  western 
material  and  intellectual  influences  throughout  the  Orient.  I 
could  illustrate  this  at  great  length,  but  a  few  instances  will 
suffice.  The  East  is  flooded  with  young  American  and  Euro- 
pean commercial  men,  eagerly  devoted  to  the  introduction  of 
their  goods  to  the  oriental  consumer.  Enter  to-day  any  one 
of  the  great  European  hotels,  that  stretch  like  a  cordon  across 
the  East, — let  us  say  the  Imperial  Hotel  in  Tokyo,  or  the 
Astor  House  at  Shanghai,  or  the  Hongkong  Hotel  at  Hong- 
kong, or  Raffles  Hotel  at  Singapore,  or  the  Grand  Oriental 
Hotel  at  Colombo,  or  the  Grand  Hotel  in  Calcutta,  or  the 
Taj  Mahal  Hotel  in  Bombay, — and  you  will  see  the  dining- 
rooms  and  corridors  filled  with  young  traveling  representatives 
of  western  firms.  You  are  reminded  of  Denver  or  Chicago. 
I  was  lecturing  at  Lucknow.  I  approached  the  Reid  Christian 
College,  where  the  lecture  was  to  be  given.  At  the  same 
moment  a  fine  French  motor  car  swept  up  to  the  door,  and 
from  it  alighted  an  Indian  rajah,  who  entered  the  hall, 
leaving  the  motor  car  in  charge  of  his  Punjabi  chauffeur. 
If  you  happen  to  be  at  Hankow,  six  hundred  miles  up  the 
Yangtse  River,  on  a  Tuesday  evening,  you  may  take  a  train 
df  luxe  for  Peking,  equipped  with  sleeping  carriages  and 
dining  carriage.  If  you  take  a  railway  out  of  Tokyo  in 


25 

any  direction,  you  will  see  along  the  roadside,  set  forth  in 
gaudy  colorings  like  some  kind  of  unwholesome  flowers,  the 
signboards  advertising  Scotch  whiskey.  Take  up  native  news- 
papers in  Calcutta,  Colombo,  or  Tokyo,  and  therein  you  will 
find  reported  the  latest  phases  of  our  western  life,  be  it  good  or 
evil:  the  gift  of  millions  to  an  educational  fund,  or  the  sensa- 
tional murder  trial,  or  the  latest  lynching  in  Georgia.  These  and 
many  other  instances  illustrate  the  impetuous  energy  of  west- 
ern material  and  intellectual  influence  throughout  the  Orient. 

Another  aspect  of  the  oriental  world  that  impressed  me  is 
the  modernizing  of  the  non-Christian  faiths.  A  popular  idea 
exists  that  the  ancient  non-Christian  faiths  continue  as  they 
were  from  the  beginning,  resisting  the  changing  influence  of 
time.  This  is  not  the  case.  These  ancient  faiths  are  not  so  in- 
flexible as  has  been  supposed.  They  are  in  process  of  re- 
adjustment to  new  conditions,  and  are  assimilating  religious 
elements  of  western  thought,  and  using  the  product  thus 
assimilated  as  a  means  of  self-defence  against  Christianity. 
Here  arises  the  very  serious  problem  of  the  modern  non- 
Christian  world  assimilating  the  culture  of  Christendom,  while 
rejecting  its  faith.  I  could  give  many  illustrations,  but  shall 
confine  myself  to  two. 

When  visiting  in  Hyderabad,  the  chairman  at  my  lecture 
was  a  Mohammedan  gentleman  of  high  position.  He  had 
spent  his  life  within  the  precincts  of  the  remote  native  state  of 
Hyderabad.  Five  and  twenty  years  before  he  had  paid  one  visit 
to  England.  One  might  suppose  that  a  man  placed  in  such 
remoteness  from  the  centers  of  western  thought  would  have 
his  mind  filled  with  local  ideas.  On  the  contrary,  in  the 
course  of  a  delightful  and  many-sided  conversation,  he 
broached  the  subject  of  American  literature.  He  assured 
me  of  his  peculiar  admiration  of  Edgar  Allen  Poe.  He 
then  proceeded  to  compare  Whittier  and  Longfellow,  and 
to  nlake  some  very  discerning  observations  upon  the  points 
of  contrast  and  resemblance  between  Emerson  and  Carlyle. 
Impressed  with  his  wide  reading,  I  sought  a  further  test  and 
suggested  the  name  of  Washington  Irving.  I  found  him  per- 
fectly familiar  with  all  the  writings  of  Irving,  and  was  further 
astonished  when  he  drew  my  attention  to  the  stately  style  of 
Irving  as  suggesting  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century 


26 

rather  than  the  nineteenth  century,  and  as  connected  in  his 
mind  with  the  style  of  Oliver  Goldsmith.  Thus  had  this 
Mohammedan  gentleman,  residing  in  a  native  state,  assimi- 
lated the  culture  of  Christendom.  But  in  his  religious  position 
his  face  was  set  as  a  flint  against  Christianity. 

The  other  illustration  of  this  modernizing  of  the  non- 
Christian  world  was  brought  to  my  attention  by  Dr.  Zwemer, 
the  Arabian  missionary,  who  permitted  me  to  examine  a 
Mohammedan  manual  of  prayer,  lately  issued  at  the  Moham- 
medan Book  and  Tract  Repository  in  Lahore.  In  this  manual 
occurs  a  prayer  of  confession,  the  language  of  which  I  am 
sure  must  be  familiar  to  many  of  my  auditors.  The  prayer 
begins  as  follows:  "Almighty  and  Most  Merciful  Allah,  we 
have  erred  and  strayed  from  thy  ways  like  lost  sheep,  we 
have  followed  too  much  the  devices  and  desires  of  our  own 
hearts,  we  have  offended  against  thy  holy  laws,  we  have  done 
those  things  that  we  ought  not  to  have  done  and  we  have  left 
undone  those  things  that  we  ought  to  have  done,  and  there  is 
no  health  in  us,  etc." 

A  third  aspect  of  the  modern  East  which  impressed  me  is  the 
evidence,  already  abundant,  that  the  Christian  development 
of  the  East  will  be  along  lines  corresponding  with  the  oriental 
consciousness,  rather  than  along  lines  predetermined  by  west- 
ern ecclesiastical  authority.  I  speak  with  all  honor  of  denomi- 
national missions  in  the  East.  Not  otherwise  than  through 
these  could  the  great  work  already  done  have  been  accom- 
plished. Yet  a  large  study  of  the  situation  shows  that,  in  its 
future  assimilation  of  Christianity,  the  East  both  consciously 
and  unconsciously  will  move  along  lines  suggested  by  its  own 
temperament  and  preference.  The  development  is  likely  to 
be  different  in  different  countries,  for  the  temperament  varies. 
If  I  might  hazard  a  conjecture  touching  the  future,  I  should 
say  that  the  Chinese  are  likely  to  turn  most  naturally  to  ritual 
and  a  prescribed  liturgy.  They  love  organization  and  regular- 
ity of  practice,  and  care  less  for  the  subjective  side  of 
religious  experience.  The  Hindu  deprecates  organization  and 
turns  toward  the  mystical  and  philosophical  aspects  of  truth. 
The  future  religious  development  of  Japan  promises  to  be 
along  the  line  of  simplicity  of  ritual,  combined  with  a  large 
interest  in  theological  doctrine. 


27 

Such  were  some  of  the  impressions  made  upon  me  as  I 
moved  among  the  most  thoughtful  minds  of  the  East;  and 
there  grew  in  my  thought  a  conviction  that  no  institution  of 
the  West  is  more  happily  situated  for  the  exertion  of  influence 
upon  the  modern  East  than  a  great  theological  school  like  our 
own,  emancipated  from  ecclesiastical  control,  built  upon  unde- 
nominational lines,  while  interested  in  all  denominational 
churches.  An  institution  so  situated  occupies  a  position  of 
singular  advantage.  By  reason  of  its  freedom  and  catholicity, 
it  can  do  what  the  local  church  cannot  do,  because  of  the 
pressure  of  its  own  local  affairs,  and  what  the  denominational 
boards  cannot  do,  because  of  their  very  proper  restriction  to 
certain  prescribed  lines  of  action.  A  great  undenominational 
theological  school  of  to-day  may  touch  the  broad  world 
directly,  and  bring  to  bear  upon  it  powerful  influences  that 
make  for  Christianization. 

Let  me  suggest,  as  I  close,  what  my  thought  is  in  three 
particulars.  The  question  to  be  answered  is:  How  can  Union 
Seminary,  now  approaching  a  large  and  glorious  future, 
engage  in  the  work  of  world  Christianizing  on  a  large  scale? 
I  answer  first,  by  cultivating  a  spirit  among  its  students  of 
appreciation  and  love  toward  the  world,  which  shall  result  in 
sending  forth  to  the  East  an  increased  number  of  thoroughly 
trained  men  as  missionaries.  We  have  every  reason  to  be 
proud  and  thankful  concerning  many  of  the  men  who  have 
gone  out  from  us  to  the  East.  I  could  speak  long  and  fully 
about  numbers  of  these  men,  older  and  younger,  with  whom  I 
came  in  contact  and  of  whom  I  have  heard.  But  we  must 
prepare  and  send  forth  greater  numbers  as  our  contribution  to 
the  East,  and  we  must  equip  them  on  the  basis  of  a  first  hand 
knowledge  of  oriental  conditions. 

Secondly,  the  Seminary  can  exert  a  direct  influence  upon 
the  world  through  availing  itself  of  opportunities,  that  may 
arise  from  time  to  time,  to  send  its  teachers  directly  out  into 
the  non-Christian  world  with  the  large  irenic  message  of  the 
Christian  Gospel.  Already  the  Seminary  has  made  a  beginning 
in  this  direction  by  sending  forth,  twice,  one  of  its  faculty  as 
Barrows  Lecturer  to  India  and  the  Far  East.  But  this  is  only 
a  beginning,  what  I  may  call  the  thin  edge  of  the  wedge.  I 
have  in  view  the  adoption  of  this  as  a  principle  of  our  adminis- 


28 

tration,  that  from  time  to  time,  while  our  work  goes  on  at  home, 
a  representative  of  the  Seminary  shall  be  in  the  East  as  a  witness 
and  a  teacher.  I  turn  to  one  who  sits  on  my  right,  my  dear  friend 
and  colleague,  Doctor  Knox.  By  the  singular  felicity  with 
which  he  has  discharged  the  duties  of  Acting  President  during 
my  absence,  he  has  given  one  more  proof  of  his  ability  to 
render  service  at  home;  but  we  must  not  forget  that  Doctor 
Knox  has  spent  fourteen  years  of  his  life  in  Japan,  that  he  is 
thoroughly  at  home  in  Japan  and  has  the  confidence  and 
esteem  of  Japan's  leading  men.  What  could  be  more  fitting 
than  that,  at  the  proper  time,  this  Seminary  should  send  forth 
Doctor  Knox  to  Japan,  to  speak  at  this  most  critical  period  of 
Japanese  development  concerning  the  fundamental  principles 
of  the  Christian  Gospel? 

And  finally  I  answer  the  question,  "  How  can  Union  Sem- 
inary bring  to  bear  direct  influence  upon  the  modern  oriental 
world?"  Let  us  take  the  initiative  in  providing  for  the  oriental 
world  literature  that  shall  adequately  represent  the  noblest 
and  least  sectarian  modern  interpretations  of  the  Christian 
religion.  I  am  not  unmindful  of  the  valuable  service  rendered 
by  various  denominational  missionary  presses.  Their  contri- 
butions to  the  vernacular  literatures  of  the  East  have  in  many 
instances  been  very  valuable.  But  at  the  present  time,  what 
the  East  most  wants  is  not  literature  issued  by  a  denomina- 
tional board,  but  deliverances  of  Christian  scholars,  defining 
with  clearness  the  essential  truths  of  the  religion  of  Jesus 
Christ.  When  in  Shanghai,  I  had  a  very  striking  interview 
with  the  distinguished  missionary  Timothy  Richards,  who  told 
me  that  recently  two  provincial  governors  of  China,  unable  to 
find  in  any  existing  vernacular  publications  a  sufficiently  broad 
and  non-sectarian  interpretation  of  the  Christian  religion, 
have  deputed  their  own  non-Christian  scholars  to  produce 
manuals  of  the  Christian  religion  which  could  be  studied  in 
the  schools.  Doctor  Timothy  Richards  tells  me  that  the 
manuals  thus  produced  reflected  the  unfamiliarity  of  their 
authors  with  the  actual  facts  of  the  Christian  religion. 
Nevertheless,  instances  like  these  are  significant,  and  I  hold 
that  the  way  is  open  for  us  to  work  directly  and  indirectly 
for  the  instruction  of  the  oriental  world  in  the  higher  truths  of 
our  holy  faith. 


29 

Gentlemen  of  the  Alumni,  as  I  look  toward  Morningside 
Heights  and  think  of  the  great  buildings  shortly  to  arise  there, 
a  vision  unfolds  before  me  of  the  future  world-wide  influence 
of  this  Seminary.  God  grant  that  the  vision  may  be  fulfilled. 


REVIEW   OF   THE   YEAR   1906-1907 
GEORGE   WILLIAM    KNOX 

It  is  my  pleasure  to  welcome  President  Hall  on  behalf  of 
this  distinguished  assembly.  You,  Sir,  return  with  an  experi- 
ence enriched  by  a  remarkable  series  of  opportunities  for 
contact  with  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  opportunities 
nobly  used,  indeed,  too  laboriously  and  conscientiously  used,  to 
the  overtaxing  of  yourself.  We  thank  God  for  your  recovery 
from  the  serious  illness  which  cut  short  your  stay  in  Japan, 
and  for  your  restoration  to  your  accustomed  strength.  You 
have  been  a  true  ambassador  of  our  Lord  in  Asia,  and,  may  I 
not  add,  the  true  representative  of  the  spirit  of  this  Seminary. 
Under  the  inspiration  of  your  renewed  leadership  we  look  for 
a  constant  approach  to  that  which  yet  ever  recedes  as  we 
draw  near  it — the  Seminary's  ideal. 

In  the  absence  of  Dr.  Hall  upon  his  service  in  India  and 
the  Far  East,  the  executive  work  of  the  Seminary  has  been 
my  charge  during  the  year,  and  it  is  my  duty  therefore  to 
report  to  the  Alumni  the  work  of  the  months  past. 

Naturally  foremost  in  our  thoughts  has  been  the  proposed 
removal  to  the  new  site  upon  Morningside  Heights,  and  it  is 
fitting  that  the  Faculty  should  acknowledge  the  constant  con- 
sideration of  the  Board,  of  Directors  for  its  wishes.  The 
Faculty  was  requested  in  the  beginning  to  specify  the  needs, 
and  in  the  programme  issued  for  the  competition  these  require- 
ments were  set  forth  and  the  successful  architects  have 
embodied  them  in  the  admirable  design  which  has  been  chosen. 
Therefore,  we  are  forbidden  to  complain  if  the  plans,  when 
realized,  should  fail  to  satisfy  the  requirements  of  the  future; 
but  should  this  prove  to  be  the  case,  it  will  not  be  from  the 
lack  of  prolonged  and  thoroughgoing  and  minute  consideration 
and  discussion. 

[so] 


31 

We  would  also  express  our  gratitude  for  the  great  gifts 
which  have  made  this  embodiment  possible,  former  benefac- 
tions having  been  increased  by  the  announcement  at  this 
Commencement  of  a  new  gift  of  $200,000.  This  will  provide 
for  the  completion  of  the  group  of  buildings  as  planned, 
excepting  only  the  Library — for  which  we  are  still  seeking 
donors  who  shall  give  the  $250,000  needed  for  its  erection.  The 
plans  wait  for  this  consummation;  when  it  is  attained,  the  wise 
conservatism  and  caution  of  the  Board  in  delaying  the  incep- 
tion of  the  work  until  the  means  for  its  accomplishment  are  in 
hand  will  be  fully  justified. 

A  year  ago  the  President  of  the  Board,  in  his  address  at 
this  luncheon,  spoke  of  his  earnest  desire  for  the  co-operation 
of  the  Alumni,  words  which  have  already  born  golden  fruit. 
I  need  not  here  say  that  a  movement  has  been  undertaken 
for  the  endowment  of  our  Library  to  the  amount  of  $100,000, 
and  that  $10,000  has  already  been  pledged  by  the  Alumni  for 
this  purpose.  How  much  this  means  to  the  institution  is  clear, 
for  the  Library  through  all  its  history  has  been  hampered  by 
the  lack  of  funds,  both  for  its  proper  administration  and  for 
the  purchase  of  books;  and  yet  it  is  the  very  center  and,  in- 
deed, one  may  say,  the  nerve  of  our  intellectual  activities. 
That  the  Alumni  should  unite  in  this  effort  in  so  practical  a 
manner  is  an  acknowledgment  of  their  appreciation  of  the 
ideals  of  the  institution  and  of  their  loyalty  to  it. 

The  Seminary  has  further  advanced  in  its  programme  as 
an  institution  founded  for  the  promotion  of  theological  in- 
struction and  training  for  all  branches  of  the  Christian  Church. 
In  its  student  body  twenty-one  denominations  have  been 
represented  during  the  year  past,  and  special  provision  has 
been  made  for  the  first  time  for  the  instruction  of  men  of 
different  religious  persuasions  in  the  ecclesiastical  history  and 
polity  of  their  respective  churches.  A  year  ago  an  enthusias- 
tic and  loyal  Alumnus  suggested  the  founding  of  a  Lectureship 
on  the  Principles  and  Polity  of  the  Baptist  Church.  Rev. 
Henry  M.  Sanders,  D.D.,  not  only  proposed  this,  but  through 
him  it  has  become  a  fact.  The  Seminary  has  welcomed  with 
gladness  to  its  teaching  force  the  Rev.  Edward  Judson,  D.D., 
who,  with  distinguished  success,  has  occupied  this  lectureship, 
a  service  which  we  trust  is  only  the  beginning  of  a  permanent 


32 

tenure.  In  addition,  beside  the  instruction  provided  in  our 
charter  for  students  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  courses  have 
been  given  in  the  Polity  and  Principles  of  the  Congregational 
and  the  Episcopal  Churches.  It  is  the  purpose  of  the  Semi- 
nary so  to  enlarge  this  feature  that  the  institution  may  still 
more  fully  represent  the  substantial  Christian  unity  which  is 
the  soul  of  our  religious  life  in  the  midst  of  the  diversity  which 
characterizes  modern  Protestantism. 

The  Seminary  has  also  made  progress  toward  influencing  the 
broader  Christian  life,  recognizing  its  duties  not  only  to  the 
ministry  but  to  all  the  philanthropic  and  religious  enterprises 
of  our  times.  The  work  of  religious  training  has  been  carried 
on  by  the  Rev.  Richard  Morse  Hodge,  D.D.,  in  connection 
with  the  Teachers  College  and  with  various  associations  for  the 
promotion  of  systematic  and  thorough  training  in  the  Bible. 
A  unique  occasion  was  the  Quiet  Day  for  Social  Workers  on 
February  12,  Lincoln's  Birthday,  when  a  large  number  of 
those  actively  interested  in  social  work  of  various  kinds  met 
in  Adams  Chapel  morning  and  afternoon.  Many  creeds  were 
represented,  and  all  listened  with  evident  and  appreciative 
interest  to  addresses  from  different  members  of  the  Faculty 
on  various  aspects  of  social  work,  with  particular  reference  to 
religion.  Luncheon  was  served  by  the  ladies  of  the  Faculty 
in  the  Social  Room.  It  was  a  highly  stimulating  occasion  and 
the  Faculty  feels  a  debt  of  gratitude  to  the  Head  Worker  of 
Union  Settlement  and  Director  of  Student  Christian  Work  for 
proposing  and  carrying  it  through  with  such  efficiency.  On 
Thursday,  April  n,  another  unique  meeting  was  held  to 
take  measures  for  co-operation  with  the  Swiss  of  Geneva  in 
the  erection  of  a  Memorial  to  John  Calvin.  The  meeting  was 
attended  by  men  of  all  types  of  Christian  thought,  who  found 
themselves  in  genuine  sympathy  as  to  its  object,  and  practical 
steps  were  taken  to  realize  the  purpose  for  which  it  was 
called. 

The  regular  work  of  the  Seminary  has  proceeded  with  its 
accustomed  efficiency:  here  is  no  evidence  of  the  falling  off  of 
students  for  the  Christian  ministry,  on  the  contrary  our  num- 
bers are  well  maintained,  and  still  more  the  quality  of  the 
student  body  is  fully  equal  to  that  of  any  period  in  its  history. 
The  Seminary  has  a  distinguished  constituency  in  the  universi- 


33 

ties  and  colleges,  and  among  its  students  are  men  who  have 
already  taken  high  place  in  their  undergraduate  studies.  Nor 
has  the  Seminary  failed  to  contribute  to  theological  learning. 
Beside  many  articles  in  journals  of  scientific  theology  and 
current  periodicals,  various  books  have  appeared  from  the 
pens  of  members  of  the  Faculty.  First  and  foremost  is  the 
Hebrew  and  Aramaic  Lexicon  of  the  Old  Testament,  by 
Professors  Francis  Brown  and  Briggs,  in  conjunction  with 
Professor  Driver,  of  Oxford,  England.  The  Faculty  cele- 
brated the  completion  of  this  work  by  entertaining  Professors 
Brown  and  Briggs  at  a  dinner  at  the  University  Club  on  the 
evening  of  October  15.  Dr.  Briggs  has  further  added  to  the 
indebtedness  of  the  learned  world  by  the  completion  of  the  two 
volumes  of  his  "  Critical  Commentary  on  the  Book  of  Psalms." 
Professor  William  Adams  Brown,  in  December,  1906,  brought 
forth  his  ''Christian  Theology  in  Outline,"  an  illuminating 
work  giving  to  us  the  continuity  of  Christian  truth  in  the 
terms  of  modern  thought.  In  addition,  dealing  with  religion 
in  its  world-wide  aspects,  are  volumes  published  by  President 
Charles  Cuthbert  Hall,  in  December,  on  "Christianity  and 
the  Human  Race,"  and  by  Professor  Knox  on  "The  Spirit 
of  the  Orient,"  in  September,  1906,  and  "The  Development 
of  Religion  in  Japan,"  in  January,  1907. 

The  Directors  and  Faculty  and  a  few  specially  invited 
guests  celebrated  the  twenty-fifth  anniversary  of  Dr.  Hastings' 
connection  with  the  Faculty  on  the  evening  of  December  i8th, 
1906.  It  was  an  occasion  long  to  be  remembered  as  fitly  cele- 
brating the  highly  important  and  esteemed  service  which 
our  beloved  colleague  has  rendered  not  only  to  the  Union 
Theological  Seminary  but  to  the  great  cause  of  liberty  in  the 
church. 

In  the  absence  of  President  Hall,  the  Seminary  has  been 
efficiently  served  in  the  Department  of  Homiletics  by  the  Rev. 
Arthur  S.  Hoyt,  D.D.,  of  Auburn  Theological  Seminary,  and 
it  has  been  our  pleasure  to  serve  in  like  fashion  the  Auburn 
Seminary  by  lectures  in  the  Department  of  Systematic  The- 
ology, given  during  the  earlier  part  of  the  year  by  Professor 
William  Adams  Brown,  D.D. 

From  this  cursory  review  of  the  year  past  we  turn  with 
high  anticipation  to  the  future.  Naturally  the  material 


34 

advancement  of  the  Seminary  is  most  prominently  before 
the  public,  but  the  Faculty  and  the  Directors  are  convinced 
that  this  is  only  the  outward  form  of  a  still  more  important 
expansion  of  the  Seminary  life.  That  the  Seminary  should 
continue  its  services  in  the  future  as  in  the  past  to  the  cause 
of  ministerial  education  and  theological  science  goes  without 
saying,  but  in  addition  it  desires  also  to  extend  its  influence 
and  its  benefits  that  it  may  be  a  training  school  for  men 
who  would  fit  themselves  for  all  departments  of  Christian 
work.  Our  age  demands  that  men  who  are  engaged  in  prac- 
tical labors  should  have  a  scientific  training,  and  in  philan- 
thropy and  religion,  as  in  other  departments  of  life,  no  educa- 
tion can  be  too  thorough  for  those  who  are  to  perform  the 
largest  service.  But  with  all  of  this  the  Seminary  is  not 
unmindful  of  the  spirit  which  has  ever  characterized  it  and 
which  is  the  motive-power  of  its  existence.  The  religious  life 
of  the  Seminary  has  been  maintained  and  strengthened,  for 
with  its  profound  belief  in  truth  and  its  full  commitment  to 
liberty  of  investigation,  it  combines  devotion  to  the  spirit  of 
Jesus  Christ  and  loyalty  to  the  life  of  his  church.  These 
aspects  of  the  Seminary's  life  are  more  fully  set  forth  in  the 
addresses  at  the  Alumni  Dinner,  and  it  is  my  part  merely,  in 
this  hasty  manner,  to  review  the  year  which  has  passed  and  to 
summarize  the  progress  which  has  been  made. 


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